
Playing Musiek Roulette posted: 07/06/2021
Mellow Yellow Entertainment, producers of South African music games show Musiek Roulette wanted a new look for the 2021 season, so called on the services of Ryan Lombard, head of show lighting at Blond Productions and Michael Gill, owner of Michael Gill Designs to design lighting and set respectively.
TV lighting specialist and rental company Blond Productions supplied all the lighting equipment, while the set was built by Dream Sets.
Ryan needed a highly adaptable lighting rig and used 72 x Robe moving lights to assist him in lighting the series, which was recorded at the Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg.
The idea with the new aesthetics was to retain a casino vibe but offer a more streamlined and modern feel, with the studio floor featuring a striking stylised central roulette wheel and three large LED screens around the circular-shaped space.
With a flourish of stealthy set imagineering, it was re-worked after the initial music recording phase - an incredible 117 songs were recorded and filmed in a single day - into a completely different space for the competition segment recordings.
The second' studio also featured some prominent scenic elements like six columns lit with LED pixel tubes and a set of scenic piano keys winding in between the columns and the perimeter of the space.
As the 13 episodes are being broadcast, the production appears to be flipping between two different studios!
The contestants answer questions related to nine performance songs / pieces of music per episode, with eliminations at the end of each show, leaving three players for the final!
The Blond team installed a lighting grid in the studio ceiling to facilitate the exact lighting positions that Ryan needed. The show also had an array of scenic props that would fly in and out for the different episodes so it was a highly visual and busy environment, commented Ryan.
He utilised six Robe MMX Spots for gobo work and for hitting the more awkward positions on set that needed lighting, with 12 x Robe ROBIN 600E Beams and 24 x LEDWash 300s also in the grid to produce the general washes and overall colour looks.
Ryan loves the ROBIN 600E Beams for their high-quality fat beams, and these were used extensively during the artist performances and for bumping into and out of the ad breaks.
Twelve LEDBeam 100s were rigged on top of the three LED screens to give sharp piercing cross beams, and four Robe Tetra2 moving LED battens were also on top of the central screen, with another two up in the roof grid enabling Ryan to create bright walls and curtains of light.
All these effects lights doubled as depth enhancers and eye candy.
The miniPointe is one of Ryan's favourite lights, and on this show, 12 were deployed on the floor. It's small, bright, light and you can get soooo much effect from them, he enthused.
In addition to these, he lit the backdrop with LED PARs and the piano keys with LED battens to induce a nice separation between these elements and the foreground set.
For the competition segment, immersive lighting cues were created to match answers - green for correct and red for incorrect - so the whole studio would plunge into these for a few seconds, and being a music variety show, the ad break transitions are extremely colourful.
By far the most challenging and high-pressure part of this project for Ryan was lighting the 117 different songs, which also all essentially needed to be done in one take due to the time scheduling.
That's why it was vital to have such a versatile rig as every song needed to look vibrant and unique, so a lot of thought went into selecting the fixtures.
Ryan used a grandMA2 light console for running moving and LED lights - also triggering the playback video including performance graphics for the artists via the grandMA VPU and the games computer feeds for the competition - and sending this to the screens, with an MA2onPC for backup.
He worked in tandem with Alastair Richards who used the MA2 onPC to control a quantity of 2K fresnel front lights and other white' generics.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...